the mystery of amman municipality

every november in amman's municipality...

"sir, i have some very urgent news!"

"what is it?"

"sir, the strangest thing is happening outside! this is in addition to the mysterious drop in temperatures that started around a month ago."

"damn! what is it now?!"

"me and the guys were digging another street, you know, the one we dug up last week, then closed, then dug up again because it wasn't closed right, then closed it, anyway, we were working on it when suddenly some of the guys started feeling droplets of water on their necks. they looked around, thinking it was another water pipe they'd broken by mistake, but there weren't any around. they started complaining that it was getting worse, and i started feeling them too. i looked around for the source, but it was everywhere! the droplets were falling from the sky! covering everything! it's happening as we speak!"

"what?!"

"i swear to you! out of nowhere these droplets started bombarding us! they were everywhere! it got so bad that we had to pack up and leave, leaving the street we were digging up half-buried. you know, we can't work under such horrid conditions! the drivers will have to swerve and try to avoid the hole, even if it filled with water and looked like the rest of the street."

"all right man. keep me posted."

two weeks later.

"sir, i have more disturbing news!"

"what is it?"

"sir, this onslaught of water falling from the sky was totally unexpected! i've never seen anything like it! it has flooded the streets and clogged up our drainage systems. if only we could've anticipated such sudden events!"

"what are you saying? what's the scale of the damage?!"

"since we weren't prepared for this, many of the streets we dug and closed have now collapsed because the sub-standard base we placed under the ill-sealed asphalt has washed away with the water! in addition, this downpour of water tends to form streams in the streets and carry sand and debris with it. since people use the roads and pavements as sand storage areas in construction sites, much of this sand has run and settled at the lower points of streets, forming small hills and valleys that rival those holes created by our worse street patching!"

"my God! was there no way to have avoided this?"

"of course not sir, it totally hit us by surprise! there was nothing we could've done. the best we can do now is to re-dig the streets, try to form new drains, and hope to God that this won't happen again..."

pause.

"the only thing that can happen worse than this is if, and God forbid, this is to freeze on its way down."